Medivac

Post-Brood War military analysis determined that 37% of Dominion troops serving in the field sustained heavy injuries and were removed from the combat zone for medical attention. This was an alarming statistic with disastrous implications: soldiers were in medical bays instead of en route to the front lines. Under Emperor Mengsk’s personal order, the Dropship was redesigned with medical technology to serve dual streamlined purposes – transportation and triage – thereby keeping Dominion Marines in the field longer, regardless of injury. It did not take long for the Umojan Protectorate and the Kel-Morian Combine to adopt this innovation as well.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

HEALING BAY

AFTERBURNERS

CAPACITY

GRAVITY TUBE

ENTRY 1/4

The Medivac is outfitted with a state-of-the-art medical bay and triage station that uses auto-sutures and laser scalpels to seal wounds and repair tissue almost as fast as it’s mangled. Soldiers are administered pain suppressants, growth stimulators, and nanomachines to keep them in the field. The machines also bond with damaged tissue, exponentially boosting its natural regenerative properties.

Heavy Medivac losses led engineering crews to perform unsanctioned upgrades—adding injectors that pump oxygen-rich fuel into the exhaust stream—to increase engine output. The first attempts, while successful at getting Medivacs out of fire zones, resulted in heavy stress-induced damage to the turbines and, in rare cases, to the ship’s airframe. When questioned, neither engineering crews nor soldiers revealed who was responsible for the changes. Dominion officers determined that it was cheaper to upgrade the whole Medivac fleet than to discipline an entire troop company.

The Medivac is larger and heavier than its predecessor, the Quantradyne Apod-33 Dropship, due to the medical bay and triage station in the rear of the ship, as well as the array of stabilizers and gyroscopes housed in the airframe that maintain the vessel’s level and orientation. This ship is also designed to ferry personnel and vehicles, including the massive Thor, to and from combat zones with minimal fuss, but its astronomical deployment costs—which amount to the weekly expenditures of a small colony town—are the reason the Dominion still trains and fields medics.

Seconds, sometimes even less, define life or death on the battlefield. Expedient deployment of vehicles and personnel—especially under fire—became a top priority in the dropship redesign. Due to budget constraints, Dominion engineers settled on a single gravity tube that reduced loading and unloading speeds to one tenth of a second, but could only deploy soldiers or machines individually.

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Flight Manual

Armored transport craft that has the ability to heal biological units.

Use it to deploy squads of units on key enemy positions.

Before setting off on a mission, scout the enemy base and the map to see what defenses/obstacles you may come up against. Remember that sometimes the fastest route to the target is not the best.

Escort your Medivacs with a few Vikings on long flights.

If you are using Marines or Marauders, be sure to have Stimpacks. The Medivacs’ healing ability will allow you to use it often.

Press the M hotkey and then click on one of your infantry units to make the Medivac follow it. If you right click on any ground unit, the Medivac will pick them up instead.

Use the Ignite Afterburners ability to get to your destination quicker. It can also help bypass defenses or escape from danger.

Tech Lab Upgrades

Caduceus Reactor: Increases starting energy of all Medivacs by 25.

Countermeasures

TerranVS

Place Missile Turrets in key points around your base to prevent surprise drops. Building a Sensor Tower is an excellent idea too.

Use Vikings to destroy the Medivacs.

ZergVS

Have Spore Crawlers in key points of your base to make it harder for the enemy to drop units on your base. Deploy spine crawlers at critical drop locations.

Spawn Mutalisks to intercept enemy Medivacs.

Get Hydralisks, and make sure to research the Grooved Spines upgrade.

ProtossVS

Build a few Photon Cannons behind your mineral line.

Get Stalkers and research Blink, then use them to focus fire the Medivacs down. Use Blink to cut them off if they try to escape.

Use the High Templar’s Feedback ability to drain their energy and destroy them. If they manage to unload units in your base, use Psionic Storm to kill them.